The foot and ankle sections are complete. I am going to add a couple of increase stitches to continue up the leg in ribbing. The foot is plain, the ankle section is in waffle stitch.

I was going to continue waffle stitches up the leg but I want to be able to knit these without constantly changing the stitches I am doing, so I have done increases and will begin 3×1 ribbing stitches soon.

I haven’t been knitting much, but I have been working on swatches to test yarns and whether I could actually do a pattern.

Swatches:

Potential sweater:

Knitting an enjoyable big swatch for the Idunn sweater by Linda Marveng. I think I’m using a size 7 needle with bronze metallic yarn. While the yarns not just right for the pattern, I think it would make a nice blingy cardigan on a slightly smaller size needle.

There’s only one row of cable moves to make and the only difference in the cables is the length of rows knit before you do a cable crossing row.

It just looks difficult. I have begun to appreciate easy things that look hard, very much.

Swatch test of Alice Starmore yarn:

I like the Hebridean 2 or 3 ply, and I love the colors. I do worry that I am nowhere near careful enough with my handknits to use non-superwash wool, considering I have ruined more than a few outfits and knitted items over the years accidentally.

I’m going to knit another swatch at the gauge required by the project, but I have to get some needles free.

I loved getting that order in the mail though. Loved it.

In January, my and a few of my friends are going to do six months of cold sheeping. So naturally a spoiled myself with two bundles of yarn in December. I’m going to have to start back knit way more often.

First step: Start knitting first thing early Saturday mornings when no one else is up. I used to enjoy this and maybe that will help me get cranking on some other things.

Second step: Go to more knit nights. Even if I don’t knit the entire time, going gives me a necessary break from other things.

Overall stash management

Cull the stash. There’s some stuff in there I just don’t want to be bothered with any more. It involves packing up some stuff I know I’m never going to use and giving it to someone who will; tossing some stuff; and use-it-or-lose-it on other items.

Evaluate/toss some of the handspun. Can some of the test spins be used as bits of interest in a larger skein? Some of them are just big enough for me to learn what fibers I have no interest in spinning.

Organize individual knitting needles and give them a dedicated space.

Make a list of spinning braids and fibers I have on hand for days I could be spinning.

Projects in progress

Larger gauge black rainbow socks. Damn I wish I knew what sock yarn this was, because I would buy some more. It is so soft, and slightly thicker than most of the fingering weight in my stash.

Projects to repair

Noro seed stitch cowl. Frog the section in the back where I increased in the black yarn section to make it slightly drapier, which really didn’t help.

Projects to frog and rework

Highlander sweater. I lost interest in doing the math and row-by-row counting to make it top down. Just start from the bottom up instead. I’ll be happier. Also, it will be way easier to use stitch markers on, since my notes weren’t all that great.

Born of Fire scarf. I screwed up and washed it, along with a black ink pen, which kind of muted the pink. I’m kind of bummed. Not only was that a problem, but the pinkish yarn bleeds a lot. Then the black yarn is skinnier than the pink was, so the knitting’s kind of unbalanced there. I want to tighten that up some. I have been waffling on knitting it up anyway so I can check it off the list, and changing out the pink for another pink in my stash that is more kettle-dyed and muted. I hope the green doesn’t run too. It’s a great color.

I don’t think the pink part I hadn’t knitted yet was damaged much. I’d made it past row 100-something, and it looks like about half a ball is left, so I’ll use the unknitted half and unravel whatever I need from the old first half. (I guess blogging does lead to decisions on some stuff. I’ve been thinking about this off and on for about 2 months.)

My knitted items have to be tough to survive living with me. I have felted stuff, ripped stuff, cut ends so short the project started unraveling, and if I’d been a smoker I probably would have set more than one project on fire.

Projects to resurrect

East Meets West purse

Marcasite Mehndi Shawl

Juliet Sweater: I am a size or 3 larger right now than when I first started knitting it. I’ll have to frog what I’ve done. I think I’ll just pull out the Knitting from the Top book and work out a way to make it a mock turtleneck with beads. I love the beading on it. Still the most gorgeous thing ever.

Re-evaluating other hibernating projects

King Charles Brocade Cloth: Frog it when I get back to it. That’s just not going to happen.

Girls Best Friend Poncho: I don’t think the yarns I picked for it will work out like I thought. Swatch and see.

Light blue washcloths: moved to the frogged section. Won’t be recreating those.

Naturally there are a lot of half-formed plans, wishes, and dreams tied up in all this. Lately, I’m wanting to start something new every day, and it’s happier for me to think about the possibilities than not.

I moved recently and I am still sorting out my stuff. Some stuff, I know exactly where it is. Other stuff, not so much.

For instance, I have 2 sets of socks on the needles and I know where those are. I have a couple of swatches for things started and I know where those are. I know where all my yarn is.

But where is my set of Knitpicks needles? No idea. It has been weeks of no idea. Today, I think I figured out where I stuck them for the move, so hopefully there will be some success there. UPDATE: Found them where I thought they were, and was able to refrain from casting on yet another thing.

Why do I need them? Swatching, more swatching, and casting on all the things. I pulled out some sample yarns to see if I could follow instructions for the butterfly dress. A few rows into the edging, I had a dropped stitch, when means I have to tink back two rows to get back on track. There’s so many yarnovers and double yarnovers, and no resting rows, lol, so I can’t just frog a row with abandon and pick the stitches back up.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be making a waist-length butterfly dress/tank starting with red yarn, and switching to a darker yarn when that red runs out.

I also want to do a brioche pattern sample to figure out the method, and swatch for a pair of soldier socks. My gauge and penchant for knitting on larger needles has changed over the years, so I’ll probably have to go down a size or two. (That’s another thing I can’t find, my needle gauge. If I ever get my knitting tools and bags sorted back out, it will be a miracle.)

The black rainbow socks are coming along. I have half a foot knit on them and they feel great when I try them on. The Lime & Violet green socks, I have just looked at them and put them back in my purse or in the car for when I’m stuck somewhere.

Today, I pulled up a Knit Girllls episode that cracked me up from the very beginning.

Episode 49:

Leslie: Okay, I’m ready.

Laura: Are you? (I am.) I was born ready.

Leslie: I know. I know you were. I’m always trying to play catch up to you. I’m totally leaving this in as well.

They crack me up!

I have this fantasy that I’m going to go through their list and figure out where I left off listening and watch them all from there. They’re up to episode 347 or something, and I think I left off somewhere in the 300s, just before Leslie moved back to Mississippi. So they’re back to being in the same room when they podcast instead of different states. I’m so happy for them, too.

The yarn for the Forest Path Stole, an almost entirely entrelac project, is some of the oldest yarn in my stash, and it’s still on my must make list. I’m going to test knit on it a little and see if I can handle working with the laceweight I bought for it.

That yarn is a story in itself. It’s a chocolate pink blend and I spent months looking for an equivalent in dark burgundy, dark green and/or cranberry — no luck. So I bought a second skein and my friend Melissa and I overdyed one of them cranberry. It was more like tinted it cranberry, I think. I had such high hopes and an even higher fear of failure that I never actually tested them together. Nothing that freaking lightweight should be so important. lol

If it works well together, I’ll have a whole week to knit on it without a lot of distraction. Here’s hoping

That’s me, staying on point. What I meant to say was I have a pair of plain toeup socks I’m working on currently in Lime n Violet yarn. (I’ll work on those in conjunction with the entrelac.)

That L n V podcast was cra-a-a-zy, and while it blew up in a bad way, I have very fond memories of it, so working with the yarn is kind of a throwback to good times for me. One other skein or so left in another colorway. I’ll probably make a cowl of some sort out of this red/white/blue one.

I spent a couple of hours picking colors for the Inara Wrap by Ambah Designs. I had to. The designer’s ads pop up a lot on the Ravelry threads I visit, and the last time I got so I WANT THIS about one of her designs, I decided I’d better knit the first pattern of hers I’d bought before I upped and bought another one. (I’ve been buying a lot of patterns lately. The most recent ones tend to be ones I can use for stash knitting, so hopefully that will help me use up some of the older yarns I’m not crazy about.)

Since I don’t have a gradient set and no current funds to buy one, for this pattern I got some of my variegated and solid yarns together. Hopefully they’ll work well and complement each other. If not, I’ll go back in and pick all solids.

While I was picking yarns for that one, I also picked yarns for two versions of the Rikaart Cowl. One is a going to be a mix of tweedy yarns; the other is a bunch of worsted solids. I made two or three failed attempts on the solid one. The first time I lost track of where I was in the pattern. The second and third time, I dropped a few stitches and had to start over from the beginning, at which point I put them in time out for a later day. Next time, I will go in with a pen, a row counter, and a different type of needle. I was using a non -lace Addi turbo, which was a little too blunt to me for this project. A friend of mine may also knit it along with me. Maybe that will get me off to a better start.

I turned the heel and have gotten past the ankles on the rainbow socks. I still have a lot of yarn to use up. I will probably get to at least mid-calf.

I may pull out the Gracious Cowl I knitted a while back but never finished the bind off on. It is a striking, beautiful cowl, and I plan to make another in different colors. I haven’t been able to do a good-looking i-cord bind off, but I will give it another shot.

The main projects I’m working on are the rainbow socks, the Noro cowl, and dragon/phoenix scarf.

I only picked the scarf back up Thursday when I had a day off. I have finished a chart, not completely correct, but I have learned a bad lesson about not being able to fix errors that are more than one or two rows down.

I added some more rows onto the Noro and multi-yarn cowl. Some of it was a gray stash yarn I doubled to kind of match the Noro, and I’m knitting the black silk/wool blend used for some former mitts into it. It’s really soft. When that’s gone, I’m going to use a skein of black Cascade 220 to finish it off.

I’ve turned the heel on the rainbow socks. Because I winged it, they are kind of on the baggy side, on each side of the heel, and one wrinkle on the top of the and listening to digital books has been a great help keeping me going on them. I’m going to knit as long as I have yarn.

FINISHED PROJECTS

STASH DASH Project List 2012 - incomplete, but marking it done. I have officially given up on the Stash Dash list. I finished 80% of the projects I had on there. Canceled the gift shawl altogether. My cousin's scarf is still on the to-do list though.